National Republican Army

The National Republican Army (ENR) was the army of the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945 that fought on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II. The ENR was formed on 28 October 1943 by merging former Royal Italian Army units still loyal to Benito Mussolini and Italian pro-Nazi units raised by the Germans after the occupation of southern Italy. The army grew to have a strength of 300,000 soldiers, and the first ENR division was sent to the front in June 1944. Recruiting soldiers was difficult for the RSI, as many Italians had been conscripted into German forced labor camps, the majority of the Royal Italian Army was interned by the Germans, and the remainder were unwilling to fight. The RSI responded by promising convicts their freedom if they joined the ENR, and they killed those who refused. In April 1945, the last of the RSI's forces were bottled up alongside two Wehrmacht divisions at Collecchio, where the Brazilians forced them to surrender. On 1 May 1945, Rodolfo Graziani ordered for all ENR forces to surrender. The ENR lost 100,000 casualties (including 34,770 dead) during the war.